Getting ready for One Book, Two Book festival

Best-selling children's author Nancy Krulik - creator of the book series "Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo" and "George Brown, Class Clown" - will kick off this weekend's One Book, Two Book children's literary festival as the keynote speaker during tonight's author dinner.

Krulik also will hold a presentation at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Iowa City Public Library. For information, go to www.onebooktwobook.org.

Here are some local reviews of three of her books:

'George Brown, Class Clown: Attack of the Tighty Whities!'

"George Brown, Class Clown: Attack of the Tighty Whities!" is a book about a boy named George. George won a spelling contest in school because Louie spelled the word "crabby" wrong, and George got it right. George spelled "crabby" right and got to go to a spelling contest.

Louie, Mike and Max try to do mean things to George. George does his best not to listen to them. Before the spelling contest, George had a Super Burp. George gets out of control and knocks over everyone's drinks in the ice cream place. George only told his best friend, Alex, about his Super Burp. Alex tries to help George with the Super Burp by making him ice cream and onions.

It tasted gross!

At school, George wears his underwear over his pants on backwards day. He sees Louie, Mike and Max. Louie was on roller skate shoes and falls down on his rear because he was skating backwards. At the spelling contest, George had a huge Super Burp and ran outside and danced in the flowers.

George does well at the spelling contest and gets second place. Everyone was very proud of George.

Three things I liked about the book is that George does funny things like wearing his underwear over his pants, has a Super Burp and dances in the flowers. The funniest part of the book for me was when Louie skated backwards and fell on his rear. The pictures in the book were also funny!

A lesson that I learned from this book was that Louie, Mike and Max should not be bullies and make fun of George.

I think boys and girls who are in first, second and third grade would like to read this book.

Ethan Schamberger is a second-grader at Prairie Heights Elementary.

'Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo; Something's Fishy'

I read "Katie Kazoo Switcheroo: Something's Fishy" by Nancy Krulik. It is a fiction book series about Katie Kazoo, a red-headed fourth-grader in Mr. G's class.

Katie has the unusual ability to turn into other living creatures. She had a terrible day at school and was wishing she could be anyone but herself when a shooting star went over her house. This wish gave her the ability to change, but she never knows when or what she'll change into.

In this Katie Kazoo book, Katie and her class go to the Cherrydale Aquarium. Kevin, a boy in her class, is trying to feed the fish. Ms. Sweet tries to stop him from throwing the food into the big aquarium.

When Ms. Sweet leans over the big fish tank to get the bread from Kevin, her engagement ring falls off into the aquarium. Katie Kazoo goes to get a drink of water. She suddenly feels a wind and thinks, "Weird, there aren't any open windows or fans blowing." She realizes that she is turning into something. She can't move her eyes and suddenly realizes she is the clownfish she saw earlier that day.

I liked this book. I liked when Katie Kazoo turns into a fish and what she was thinking when she was a fish. Who doesn't like magic? It was exciting when she had to try to avoid the shark. There were funny parts like when her friends were cracking jokes and when they were playing fish tag, predators vs. prey. She was the only one that wasn't tagged because she pulled out her fake sea anemone to protect her. I also liked the fun fish facts at the end of the book.

I think kids in second, third and fourth grade who like reading about fish, friends or funny happenings would like this book.

I would recommend "Something's Fishy." I think I'll check out another in the series.

Molly Dains is a fourth-grader at Clear Creek Elementary.

'Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo: 'Red, White and - Achoo!'

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone other than yourself? Well, a girl named Katie Carew does!

That's what the series, "Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo," written by Nancy Krulik, is all about!

In "Red, White and - Achoo!," Katie's fourth-grade class is learning about the presidents because Presidents Day is coming up. When Katie misses school because she is sick, she finds herself stuck learning about who she thinks is the most boring president ever, Millard Fillmore. She later learns that he is actually a pretty cool president because he created a foundation to help protect animals from cruelty in Buffalo, N.Y.

Katie decides not to make her project boring, so she makes her speech into a rap! Later on, after a quick personality "switcheroo" she finds herself needing her rap more than she thought she would.

I thought that this book was a great book to read! I distinctly remember reading these when I was younger, so I had high hopes for this book. I think this book would be good for second- to fifth-grade students, but if you're older or younger, I think you would like it, too!

My favorite part was whenever Katie's friend, Suzanne, celebrated a silly holiday, like Umbrella Day, Kite Day or Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk Day, that she saw on her new calendar! I liked it because it was very funny waiting for her response to what she was doing and why. Suzanne is funny, brave and confident, and I like the fact that she is OK to be herself!

This book was also pretty descriptive, and I love when a book is descriptive, so I can visualize what is happening in my head. I would recommend this book to kids who like a mostly realistic fiction book, with a slight fantasy twist!

Lucy Polyak is a sixth-grader at Wickham Elementary.

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Getting ready for One Book, Two Book festival

Local reviews of three books by best-selling children's author Nancy Krulik ? the keynote speaker for this weekend's One Book, Two Book children's literary festival.